Everyone and their moms are into VR right now. Hardware requirements are still huge though and we can’t expect consumers to change all their devices in order to enjoy virtual reality applications. Instead, we want to bring any 3D content to any device quite literally.

Umbra has an automated solution for a very specific problem no one else can solve at the moment, and it’s already in closed alpha testing for Unity users.

“Like Netflix for 3D”

We have the 3D model of the city of Boston from Google Earth, which we can run 90 frames per second on Oculus – the current maximum of the device. That’s not interesting though, because it’s super easy to do. What we really want you to see at GDC is that ridiculously huge model streamed from Umbra’s cloud into a Samsung smartphone attached to a Gear VR, running that city at consistent 60 frames per second which is also the maximum for the platform.

Umbra automatically restructures any 3D data and combines visibility, level of detail and content streaming, making it possible to display the original content on any platform with any frame rate. On platforms with limited processing capabilities or with extremely bad bandwidth Umbra can easily trade visual quality for higher frame rates, automatically – a little bit like Netflix for 3D.

It goes without saying that Umbra can process scenes without size limitations, they could have millions of objects and textures for example. The best part is that this tool is available for anyone to use.

Where can I see it?

You can see the demo at Game Developers Conference in San Francisco March 16-18th